“Rolling Stone magazine is offering ‘thought leaders’ the chance to write for its website if they are willing to pay $2,000 to ‘shape the future of culture,'” reports the far-left Guardian.
The Guardian says it has seen emails from Rolling Stone “suggest[ing] that those who pass a vetting process – and pay a $1,500 annual fee plus $500 up front – will ‘have the opportunity to publish original content to the Rolling Stone website.’”
The apparent pitch is that getting published on Rolling Stone‘s website “allows members to position themselves as thought leaders and share their expertise.”
Note that for your $2,000, you are not published in the printed physical magazine, only on the website.
The use of the word “members” appears to relate to Rolling Stone‘s Culture Council, an “invitation-only community for influencers, innovators, and creatives.” By joining this council, among other perks, you are promised “the exclusive opportunity to publish on RollingStone.com” (which doesn’t sound very exclusive anymore), “direct access to a living, breathing think tank … so you can influence trends, create new art, and leverage your voice to create greater impact,” and become part of “a vetted network of innovators in the multi-faceted entertainment industry.”
Rolling Stone used to be antiestablishment; now, it’s closer to an invitation-only country club for elites willing to pay the annual $1,500 club fee.
From the sounds of what the Guardian found, Rolling Stone’s also a playground for lobbyists.
Pieces already published as part of the scheme include a set of positive predictions for the future of the cannabis industry by a PR executive who represents a cannabis producer and a piece praising the social nature of sports betting by the founder of an online sports betting community.
Wow. What a fall.
Talk about whoring out your brand.
As you can see here, these pieces aren’t even labeled “paid advertising,” but are under the fig leaf of this Culture Council. Lots of outlets, including Breitbart News, engage in what’s known as “native advertising, but these articles are clearly marked as such.
Check out this one where Rolling Stone describes those who pay for the privilege as an “expert panel.”
Looks to me as though Rolling Stone is looking not only for fast and easy cash, but a way around telling its readers the truth, which is, The article you are about to read is advertising. In other words, This isn’t pay for play; this is an exclusive and important club full of VIPs and handpicked experts!
The fall of Rolling Stone is pretty much complete. What used to be a fun and provocative rock ‘n roll magazine got super woke, stuffy, and obnoxiously preachy; it published fake news, and now, it looks like it’s trying to mislead its own readers when it comes to what is and isn’t pay for play.
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